Bubble Tip on the loose - help from experienced anemone keepers?

[TOURKID]

Hi everyone! Had a quick question for those of you that have anemones.
Ive had a bubble tip in my tank for four days now. and as SOON as the lights go off it starts moving, ever since the first night.
Not for long, just about 2 hours them it stays till the next night.
During the day it doesent move at all stays attached to the rocks it picked during the night.
Normal?
and... How long do you keep your lights on? Ive been at 12/12 on and off but ive recently been reading that people leave them on 14 or so? Maybe my lights arent on long enough?

TIA!
Maggie

 

[Dlckwood]

12 hours is fine but I do run some of my tanks at 14 and they do well also. As far as the anemone moving theres not much you can do but hope it settles somewhere that you like it. I might be because theres too much flow but that would be a problem all day and not just the night.
David

 

[Poorcollegereef]

what type of lighting do you have?

My older smaller BTA did not like the bightness of my MH so it avoided any highly lit areas, so I place him in indirect light and it sayed put. I just added a second BTA and place him in a moderate area of light and waterflow and it has stayed put as well. sometimes BTAs can be fickle so I guess let it find a spot, and notice the conditions of that area, and if you dont like where it is, create an area that has similar conditions and place in a more prefereable viewing area although there are no guarentees that it will stay.

 

[TOURKID]

hmm.. The first day it moved close to the top near the light and close to a water mover right out in the open.
2nd day, back of the tank under a ledge sorta, still nice light
3rd day bottom of tank in the open, about 4 or 5 inches from power head (not in danger of it tho)

It only moves at night and seems completely happy in the day. eatting great, tight closed mouth, puts up with an annoying maroon...

Oh ya, lighting.. Im a complete newbie, looking at about 6 months now. I bought the tank as a complete kit (brand name odyssea) I know they are great lights and they have 2 different kinds one blue and one white...

 

[finding nemo]

Have you checked for preditors that come out at night and bother it?
Seems like if it likes the flow during the day but at night is on the move that something is bothering it after dark?

 

[TOURKID]

Excellent question. I have two hitch hiker crabs that came with a rock. I go out of my way to feed them though. I havent been able to identify them, but they are not coarl eaters and they have orange claws, live in two separate caves

Other than that, nothing unusual. bristle worms (lotz but not intentionally), hermits, snails, cocoapods/aphipods.. couple other kinds of worms.. gonna go see what those crabs are up to, been harmless so far. hide all the time unless its feeding time

 

[Poorcollegereef]

I have heard of bristleworms nipping at anemones, but have never actually seen it personally, although a maroon clown would be fairly good protection I would think. What do the crabs look like?
Maybe since you know when the anemone moves, you should check out the tank with a flashlight and see if there are crabs or worms around. IMO, Becareful with the power head, I had (actually still have) a BTA who loved to get close to the strainer and let it tenticles be sucked up into the waterflow (but it never got sucked into the powerhead) so I had to keep moving it away. So keep and eye out for anything and let us know if you find something, goodluck!

Edit: Also welcome to the hobby, although I'm 'new' too! I think there are no noobs, unless you want to call everyone noobs since we are all learning!

 

[TOURKID]

good point (on the noob thing lol)

Well it moved agian lastnight, agian only about 5 inches *sigh* Its 'connected' to my sand bed instead of rocks Still looks very healthy.

I kept an eye out for pretitors and found nothing bothering it!! (except the maroon of course) I'm going to rule out the preditor thing...

My powerhead situation should be fine. Took the advice of another on here and wrapped plastic 'craft sheet' around it and closed it off with zip ties. works excellently!!!

So... I still have a night mover.. hope it quits!!!!

 

[TOURKID]

Forgot about the crabs.When one molted the skin was orange, but when looking at them they appear grey and dirty. They have three longer legs on each side and the claws in front.. its body is mostly round in shape, as well as form. It looks NOTHING like an emerald crab, it looks more like a cartoon crab lol they are small! one the size of a nickle, and the other a quarter, if you pulled the quarter out to look like an oval

habits are... hiding. they never come out in the day unless its to REALLY quickly grab a piece of shrimp. the smaller one Ill see at night, the bigger one hides almost 100% of the time.

 

[Poorcollegereef]

dont be too worried about it resting on the sand right now, as long as it is able to keep a footing, then its ok. You might just have a picky anemone. Since it is on the sand, I guess is not trying to hide from the clown. Ummm, are there any other lights on in the room that might attract the anemone after the tank lights turn off? Although I have never seen this happen with anemones, I guess if lights are left on, the anemone may be attracted to a light? (Its just a guess)

In any case I think BTA stands for Baffling traveling anemone

 

[Poorcollegereef]

Oh, are the legs of the crabs round like a flipper or straight and pencil like? Do they have a black bar running from eye to eye/ (kinda like a mask)
Is the body of the crabs flat (sally lightfoot) or are they more ballish (porcelian crab) in shape?
Sorry for the bunch of questions, just trying to figure the crabs out

 

[TOURKID]

*laughing* That is totally what bta should stand for! lol

After I posted about the sand I left for 2 hours came back, and it backed up into a rock and has its foot buried in the rock crevices. Its doing so good, very healthy so far. But I just know its moving agian tonight......

The clown still hasent left it for even a second in the last few days, but no, it doesent seem to mind, it moves with it, expells its waste with the clown all is good. clown started feeding it today. very cute for such a mean fish.

So ok..
no preditors im pretty sure...
have changed any parameters, water flows etc....
lights are off at night no tvs or anything at all.....
eating well

I really am stumped on this one

 

[TOURKID]

flipper? the legs are curved a bit. yep.
the body is more of a ball, no flatness, kinda curved. the younger one is lighter in color whitch i think is orange or tan underneath the cave dust (?) They are hairy. maybe thats why they look dirty Just went and took a flashlight into one of theyre caves. I couldent tell you about the black line, Ive almost never gotten to see them. very seclusive

Can get a picture if i tease it with shrimp... need to adjust my camera somehow, already tried putting pics up, much to large....

 

[Poorcollegereef]

curved legs, but the body is a ball... ummmm. well these crabs are stumping me as of now. I think a pic would help, but no stress in trying to get one. As far as the anemone, I guess it is trying to find that perfect spot but congrats about the clown feeding the anemone!

 

[TOURKID]

so it moved another 5 inches or so and then stopped. I put a fabric cover over the glass just to rule out lighting issues.... well thats ruled out lol

 

[TWallace]

My bubble tip likes to move around at night too and usually avoids the light during the day. I only have T5 lighting, too, I can't imagine how it'd react to MH.

 

[Poorcollegereef]

tourkid, you will get a kick out of this,
MY bta decided to move about 2 inches last night about an hour before the lights went out. I have MH and it move closer to the the light. It's kinda neat, all the tenticles were pointed at the light. Go figure, but stop giving my nem ideas Jk

 

[TOURKID]

LOL Its attack of the crazy bta's

Mine tried to run over my geogonian lastnight after dark, failed, backed up 5 inches and is just sitting on the sand... ate good today tho. I just want it to pick a spot already, i moved all my buttons to the other side because the bta keeps moving on the left side. (never made it to the right side.. )

 

[Toddrtrex]

I saw in one of your other posts that you have a maroon clown, how big is the clown compared to the BTA? Maroons are very hard on anemones, esp. when they are still getting settled into the tank.

 

[TOURKID]

Oh the maroon is a terror. Had to give the LFS the other marroon it was getting so beat up.
the first day the maroon was so aggressive with the bta, that i put her in fish jail to let the bta settle down (it was all super shrunk and gaping)
a few hours later the bta was fine, i waited another day and let the fish back out. they are doing very well together now. isent to rough with it, feeds it, and defends it like crazy (gets tough at feeding time, i cant get my hands near the water without her freaking!) hmm.. its a few sizes bigger than the fish for sure, bta is about 5 1/2 inches when extended fish is maybe 1 1/2